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Nick had been talking about Christmas for at least three weeks by now, getting excited about all of the colorful lights and decorations. He had tried convincing Charlie to let him decorate the house with lights and wreaths even before Halloween but Charlie was not giving in. Now that it's November first, Charlie has finally allowed Nick to go into the attic to get the decorations out.
So that’s how Charlie has found himself standing at the bottom of a ladder holding it steady for Nick.
"Nick, please be careful! You know I get nervous when you're up on this thing!"
"Babe, relax, I know what I'm doing! I'm practically a professional," Nick shouted down, his voice a bit muffled with his head up in the attic.
Charlie rolled his eyes, "Confidence does not make you a professional," he mumbled under his breath, knowing Nick couldn't hear.
"I found it! Oh my god I'm so excited!" Nick pulls the large red plastic tote out of the attic and hands it down to Charlie. Charlie sets it down on the floor and grabs Nick's hand to help him down from the ladder.
"Oh my god, my hands are sweating, thank god you found it. I thought you were going to be up there forever."
"Char, where is your Christmas spirit? This is so exciting!"
"I am excited! But that ladder is my nemesis. We should have gotten a house without an attic. It raises my blood pressure." Charlie is mostly kidding of course, they both chose this house together because it ticked nearly all of their boxes. They got their beautiful kitchen to cook meals together and their large garden to play with the puppy that they will inevitably be adopting. They really couldn't be happier with the place.
"Right then, let's see what's in here, I honestly don't remember what we bought last year."
About two hours later, Nick and Charlie had finished putting up all of their decorations, which included but was not limited to; strings of lights in each window, large plastic light-up candy canes for their front porch, a big wreath on the front door, and stockings above the fireplace, each etched with the first letter of the boys' names. They'd made the stockings themselves the previous year when Charlie mentioned that he, Tori, and Olly all had matching stockings with their first initial written in glitter glue. Nick found it really cute and wanted to continue that tradition in their new life as husbands.
After all of their hard work, they found themselves sitting together by their fireplace, cuddling, drinking hot cocoa and chatting about anything and everything.
“The decorations look so beautiful. I guess we’ll still need to get a Christmas tree though. I can’t wait until I get to see you open the gifts I’m giving you.”
“Nick! You better not have already gotten me a gift! You know you don’t have to do that. But yeah… I’m really excited too. I’m not excited to re-wrap every gift three times because I’m still so bad at it though!” This got a laugh out of Nick and Charlie can’t help but giggle seeing his husband’s laughing face.
“Nick… you’re so beautiful when you laugh.”
“What? Where’d that come from?” Nick now had a slightly shocked look on his face, but was clearly blushing.
“I don’t know, I just thought about it, so I wanted to say it.”
“You absolute sap! You’re just trying to make me blush.”
“Well, it’s working isn’t it?” Charlie leaned closer to Nick and he could practically feel the warmth on his cheeks. “I know you like it when I call you beautiful, you can’t deny it.”
“Of course I do… Now are you going to kiss me or just stare into my soul?”
In lieu of an answer, Charlie leaned forward and kissed Nick’s cheek.
“You tease! You’re lucky I love you.”
From there the conversation drifted to many topics as the sun set. The chilly Friday slowly turned into a cold night as they chatted together tangled up in the warmth of each other.
"I keep imagining what it'll look like when there's more stockings there." Nick said after a bit of silence, looking at their two stockings together above the fireplace. They were only 25 and 24 now, but they had spoken about adopting a child before, Nick saying he definitely wanted to be a dad one day and Charlie being equally enthusiastic about the idea despite his fears.
"Is it weird that I'm really excited for us to be a family?' Nick continued, "I know we're a family already, but I mean us as dads, with one or a few children.. It's absolutely terrifying but my heart gets really excited when I think about it."
"Nick I want that with you, so, so badly. Oh god, I'm going to tear up," Charlie covered his face with embarrassment, "I think about it a lot too. I think we're gonna be great parents, you especially." Charlie said, with tears evident in his voice.
"Oh baby, Char, come here, you don't need to cry," Nick pulled Charlie closer against him in a warm embrace, "you're right, we're going to be the best dads ever. We're gonna raise beautiful children together, I believe in us, I believe in you."
Charlie leaned his head on Nick's shoulder and allowed himself to cry a bit, they were happy tears but he still felt a bit embarrassed. Nick always made him feel safe to fully feel and express his emotions, something Charlie was forever grateful for.
After Charlie had stopped crying, the couple laid together on their sofa and put on a film. Predictably, Charlie fell asleep about 30 minutes in, and Nick gently woke him up to bring him to bed.
"Goodnight Char," Nick placed a gentle kiss on his husband's forehead. Charlie was too tired to respond with anything other than a soft whine, like a sleepy kitten, and Nick's heart soared at the adorable noise.
Nick fell asleep soon after Charlie, thinking about all of the possibilities for their future together, and if he teared up a little bit himself, well no one had to know.